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35% Consumers Want iPhone 5... Sight Unseen
judgecorp writes "Apple's iPhone 5 is not announced yet, but 35 percent of consumers say they will buy it, when it comes out, even though they know nothing about it. The figure comes from an online survey of 3,000 US consumers by Experian's PriceGrabber shopping website."
They're probably people like me who own the 3gs (or older), still had time too much time on their plans (or who thought the 4 didn't quite justify an upgrade), and believe the next one is likely a good time to step up.
This is news? Coming up next you'll tell us that a new study predicts the Sun will continue to rise in the East?
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
35% of people who visit the Apple website on a daily basis? 35% of people who registered for some random website through their iPhone?
Seems like an awfully high percentage for just a regular average consumer survey.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7yD-0pqZg
By "3000 consumers", do they mean 3000 Apple consumers that just bought the IPhone 4 on that site by any chance?
Because I really doubt that 35% of "consumers" in general plan to buy a new phone, not to speak of a certain Apple phone...
Apple marketing department: Bend over ... this will be a pleasant surprise
Apple fanboi: Yes please
The figure comes from an online survey of 3,000 US consumers
No, it means that out of 3,000 people with lots of free time, and probably bored of playing Angry Birds, about a thousand went online to eagerly answer a survey to waste more time.
Furthermore, it's very likely that people answered the survey attracted by a sweepstake that offer them the chance of winning a free iProduct.
The masses are hooked on mediocrity in functionality, but will buy anything looking Gucci. Apple may become the first Trillion dollar valuation company in the world based on this kind of blind consumer interest.
Of course I want an iPhone 5.. my 3GS is due for a contractual upgrade, so why not get the 5. I already know what the 4 will do, and each release of the phone has been progressively better.
It's not like I want to throw away my investments in apps and go to another OS (droid or win7). Sounds like a no-brainer to me, not a cultists mindless decision that commentators make it out to sound like.
It makes me wonder what the percentage is for Windows users and the next version of Windows.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
Really? I'm a fanboy because I'm confident that the device will be something I want based on my experience with the first couple I've owned?
Yea, I guess I am.
I need a new phone, my current one is a iPhone 3G ( not 3GS) that is physically broken in multiple ways. I would have bought an iPhone 4, but the next one is right around the corner and so far, the new releases have always been wanted so it seems logical to wait for the next model at this point since my current on is 3 years old ... I don't want to start out behind the curve.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
In other words 35% of consumers don't care about the product but the social symbol it is and the status they think it confers on them.
No, in other words Apple has created a good brand that people have come to trust in respect to their next smartphone. But go on hatin' if it makes you feel better that many people choose an iPhone b/c it's a good phone and just as good if not better than many Android handsets.
I'm surprised that the percentage wasn't higher.
Or that Apple has done such a good job at marketing and building customer loyalty that consumers will trust that the next version of the iPhone will be adequate for their needs. Judging from my personal experience your average consumer couldn't tell you a single technical statistic about their smart phone like processor speed or even processor type. They will go on brand recognition alone.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Careful about anti-fanboyism - auto-mockery of what others love, just as blindly. Apple has a good track record as measured by customer satisfaction on their phones, and many people have confidence that that record will continue. My family is rocking two Blackberries, a Nexus S, and two iPhones, and I'll probably replace the iPhone 3GS with an iPhone 5 if it looks decent and provides incremental value. Not an automatic decision. But given the track record, I would probably answer a survey that I'd be interested in buying one. And I'm no fanboy of Apple, having literally thrown a Mac three years ago into the garbage because I hated it so much. Though I will admit my Apple Lisa and Apple ][+ were pretty sweet in the day.
"The figure comes from an online survey of 3,000 US consumers by Experian's PriceGrabber shopping website"
Nah, everyone knows sheep don't like apples. What you got there is more of an equine species, like a horse or more probably a donkey. A male one.
P.S. Its called a joke, mods and repliers. I feel the need to point this out, which is kinda sad.
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
because we all know how just looking at the speed and processor type is all you need to know! Why those pentium 4's at 3Ghz (running windows millennium or.. who cares) were the best evar! Reputation *counts*
CS majors know the time/space tradeoff, but they never get taught the 3rd, crucial, tradeoff of the set: comprehension!
I'm one of the folks who's probably going to buy it sight unseen. I could care less about if someone else things I'm affluent because I have an iPhone 5, or if I'm "trendy" because of it, or anything else. And just because it's got an Apple logo in the middle of the back doesn't mean it's worth it's weight in gold either.
I'm still using a 3GS, and after two years it's starting to get a little beaten up - the screen isn't cracked or deeply scratched, but it's got a few pits here and there, etc. I was going to upgrade to a 4, but I decided to skip a generation since we're so close to the release of the 5. And, since once of the reasons I wanted the 4 was a improvement in the camera over the 3GS (which I use a lot), I figure the 5's camera will more likely than not be slightly better.
Which brings me to the question: how may of of the 35% mentioned are people who decided to skip a generation because there wasn't a compelling reason to upgrade to a 4, but about the time the 5 rolls around their 3G or 3GS is due for a replacement?
Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr - looking for something to read? Check out my three free novels at MidnightRyder.org
The only people that think owning an iPhone is somehow a social symbol are Android users with inferiority complexes. Having an iPhone stopped being unusual years ago.
... and yet they sell. Perception of a product is very important. People know that iPhones are "good" (enough), they know that everyone and their dog know how to handle them and thus cannot be too complicated to use (whether this is true or not). One final thing that Apple does correctly: restrict choice. That might be counter-intuitive to you, but when you buy an iPhone you know exactly what you get. The only differences consist in how much storage space you have and whether you get the black or the white one. That's it.
You might think that bad, but in a sense it isn't. How many HTC phones you you have? A shitload and you aren't sure whether the one you get is going to fit. I happen to have a HTC Smart. Bad choice? At first you think it's one of the "good" ones because it really looks like it runs HTC Sense. It was also damned cheap and that should have raised a red flag. Now, last time, I came up with this in a discussion, I got slammed because I didn't get the 500€ HTC running (Desire, etc...). Yes, true... My mistake... Still, if I was going to spend 600€, why not get the iPhone as I know that it is decent quality and easy to use.
The iPhone has in a sense become the "Windows of Smartphones": The baseline everything else is compared with. To make a phone better than the iPhone it needs to be cheaper (very important! If it's more expensive or on par, the choice falls on the iPhone), as easy or easier to use than the iPhone, and be able to compete on the "apps" (hate the word) that you can install.
We have one iPhone in the household. It belongs to my wife, and while I wouldn't mind having one myself, I simply cannot justify another 50€/month plan (sure the phone is "only" 49€ then). I keep the crap phone with the cheap plan. My wife, a computer neophyte, has never been so happy with a phone. She now actually uses the Internet on it, buys songs, uses facebook and writes email. Something I never managed to get her to do on her computer.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
Okay this is just bullshit. First, this is not news for nerds, this is news for:
1) Apple Fanbois to thump their chest on
2) Android Fanbois to fires of their hatred of anything Apple
3) Business Marketroids, who are most definitely not nerds
Obviously I have to start voting with my eyeballs and look to some other site for quality news. There's nothing of substance in an article like this, it's just flamebait for all the Apple-Android flame wars.
But just to answer all three groups and point out my utter annoyance with all of them:
1) Just because you are popular doesn't mean you have the best product. Doesn't mean you don't, but "everyone else is buying it" is a top fallacy that everyone needs to stop using as a badge of honor. /rant
2) I love how you point out 35% of people are [stupid/easy to fool/lambs to the slaughter/insert overdone cliche] and then out of the other side of your mouth point out how Android phones are more popular in volume than Apple phones. To those of you who do, see #1 and stop thinking you are somehow better than Apple fanbois because you are not, you are 100% just like them.
3) You are not nerds, get off this site so the nerds can mod these stories into oblivion.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Well, I for one am entirely satisfied with my iPhone 4.
But for the record anyone who says they will buy a product sight unseen, based on nothing but speculation is an idiot!
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
So you're basically looking for a new device to continue your meaningless, consumer-driven lives?
This website used to cater to nerds who care about free and open platforms but at some point did a complete 180 to support the most closed and controlled platform in the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AyVh1_vWYQ
choose an iPhone b/c it's a good phone
You've just illustrated the point. The iphone 5 isn't out yet, but you're saying it will be good - simply because that's what you think of the ones that preceded it (all their faults notwithstanding).
Maybe it WILL be a good phone, maybe the designers and marketeers will have learned all the lessons from past mistakes. Until it comes out, nobody knows. Therefore the only people who would buy it sight-unseen and price-unkown and without knowing what the voice/data package will cost appear to be people who put their faith, willingly, in an untried product without doing any sort of critical analysis or bothering to look around to see what else is available.
Sounds like you're their ideal customer
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Or they feel that anything has to be better than the model they're using at the moment.
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It's just a display of confidence. It's not like they plunked their cash down.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
No. Not 35% of consumers. 35% of people who filled out the survey. There is no qualification of the sample in the article. Who knows how they were chosen?
35% seems shockingly high. Shockingly convenient for a who-the-heck-are-you website that could really get attention.
Sure, to some extent this covers fanbois and sheeple, but the full 35%.
For example, if included in the survey my wife would be in that 35%. She's looking for a smart phone that will also replace her iPod. She also doesn't get a new phone every other day, so when she does upgrade, she goes to the latest and greatest.
If the iPhone 5 was a year off, she'd just go ahead and get an iPhone 4. But since she expects the 5 in September, she's going to wait.
The potentially faulty assumption she is making is not that having the newest iPhone is a social symbol, but that the new iPhone will be at least as good as the old iPhone.
Why is it so strange or sad folks would want the new iPhone sight unseen? If you felt that way about the first iPhone, yeah then you might be a fanboi. But at this point, we know what the iPhone does, what its weaknesses are, what level of changes we see from one generation to the next.
It's like asking if you'd be interested in dating a supermodel's sister, sight unseen. Not quite the same as asking if you're interested a random woman pulled off the street.
for its entire history--it has covered all manner of technology (closed or not). The PS3/Wii/Xbox are all far more closed platforms than iPhones, and they've all gotten plenty of ink here. The space shuttle program has also gotten a lot of ink, I assume you don't believe that's an open platform, do you?
Any company that sells locked phones without having factory unlocked phones available is crap.
Give kudos to Apple here - you can buy an unlocked one without any hacking required. Just click on "buy" on the Apple site or pop into an Apple store.
I'm changing carriers when my contract is up in early August and it's literally just going to be a SIM card change and a number port and I'll be up and running with my existing device and still be contract-free.
The battery issue is somewhat annoying, but I can see why Apple preferred to have a hard-to-remove back to preserve the ergonomics. Besides, with decent care (frequent charging) my iPhone 3G battery, now 3 years old, still works pretty well.
... and actually doing it. How many of those 35% that responded will actually go out and buy one as soon as it comes out? Not many I'd suspect, even if only because most will still be bound by contracts etc.
Nobody will actually buy the phone sight unseen, unless they scrupulously avoid every media outlet in the world for the week of release. The problem is (as with so much market research) we don't know exactly what the question was, so we can't draw any sensible conclusions from the results.
For example "69 percent of consumers indicated that they would prefer Appleâ(TM)s iPhone 5 as a gift." - all this means is that 69% of people interpreted this question as meaning 'do you like free stuff'. As for the other 31%, as worded, their answer rather improbably implies they wouldn't take an iPhone 5 even if it was free, but in reality they probably thought 'they can't really be asking if I would rather pay money for things or not pay money for things, can they?' and assumed the question meant something different - quite possibly something to do with paying the very high tariffs needed to to get the phone 'free'.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
Which individual Android handset has more marketshare than an individual iPhone model?
Colour me unsurprised that a mobile OS used by many manufacturers making all manner of phones (from cheap crappy ones to expensive excellent ones) has a higher marketshare than a single manufacturer.
Although, if that's the sum total of your argument, then it follows that Windows is better than Linux because it has more marketshare, right? It's just that simple.
So, that's an assertion, and a biased one at that.
As someone who doesn't own a smart phone, but who knows tons of people who have them ... I'm more inclined to think that these people are exceedingly satisfied with their phones, and expect that a new generation will continue to be more of the same.
I actually don't know a single person who owns an iPhone (or iPod, or iPad) who owns it to "be seen as well off" -- in fact, they own them because of a perceived quality of the product and the overall user experience.
Do you have anything that actually objectively supports the notion that people buying these devices are more concerned with the perceptions of other people than they are of their own perceptions of quality? Because I can tell you for a fact that I like my iPod and my iPad because, in part, I like the consistency of iTunes across these devices ... I sync the same data to these devices using the same tool. (And I've used the Palm Pre my wife's work bought her ... quite frankly, I'm underwhelmed.)
I just don't get this unfounded assertion that everybody with something made by Apple has it as purely a fashion statement. In fact, most of the people I know who own these devices fall into one of two categories: 1) people who aren't technology buffs but want something which 'just works', and 2) people who work with technology but have reached an age where endless fiddling with a device is more of a nuisance and want something which 'just works'. I'm afraid I have no samples from the shallow teenager department as my sample is all from people aged 30+.
Hell, the last time I flew on a plane, the old man in the seat in front of me (easily in his 70s) took out his hearing aid (!), and put in the headphones from his iPhone to listen to music for the flight. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have an iPhone to look trendy or cool.
Why is everybody so wedded to this notion of these products being bought only by hipsters who wish to be seen with one? My observations show me as many people with sore hips have them as any other demographic.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
You mean in the same way other handset manufacturer's also told their own user the 'proper' way to hold a phone?
http://member.america.htc.com/download/Web_materials/Manual/HTC_Ozone/Ozone_Users+Manual.pdf
http://member.america.htc.com/download/Web_materials/Manual/DROID_ERIS_Verizon/DROID_ERIS_Verizon_English_UM_11_5.pdf
These types of instructions are common for any phone, smart or otherwise.
and are expecting the next generation to be the same but faster and plain better
You mean like how the new versions of Final Cut Pro and OS X Server are big improvements over their predecessors?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Style is important, most geeks do not comprehend that. Sure the tech specs are good, but it comes down to, Do I have a device that make me look professional or a cheap plastic toy that makes me look like I am still a teenager.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
No, it means 35% have a reasonable expectation that the product will be worth buying that they're planning for that purchase now.
Regardless of whether someone's willing to buy a product unseen, if the announcement comes out and it's a dud most of them will quietly back down and not buy one.
This is where I am. I have an iPhone 3GS, and my wife has an iPhone 3G. The iPhone 3GS is decent, but the 3G needs replacement. We're planning on buying an iPhone 5 now, without seeing one. (Possibly two, due to the nature of our contract; I suspect we'll need to recommit both accounts to purchase one phone, and I doubt the 3GS will be useful for another 3 years.) But, of course, if it's announced and it's a dud we won't get one. It isn't really possible to buy an Apple product without seeing it, is it?
Quit believing what other companies tell you. I don't care about the user replaceable battery. Why? Because in 3 years of using iPhones I've never run the battery down all the way. Not once. The fact that other phones "require" you carry a second battery is their problem, not Apple's.
Saying "I want the next version of this product" is very very far from "i will buy the product, here is the money, i will sign my soul that i wont backpedal even if you just bring me an inferior product than i already have"
So yea, pre-purchases of unannounced products is rather stupid, but thats not what we are talking about here. :)
So you're basically looking for a new device to continue your meaningless, consumer-driven lives?
Certainly. It's the patriotic thing to do.
Why do you hate America?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
iphones still cannot do basic smartphone stuff like run arbitrary code.
Except that it can you are a developer. Now it can't run arbitrary code from anywhere but considering how much malware exists for Android, most consumers wouldn't consider that a feature.
why else would they buy a phone that doesn't even have a fucking file manager?
Seriously, are you saying the arcane notion of having to manuallly manipulate files == true smartphone OS? So do you consider only languages where you have micro-manage memory registers like assembly to be "real" programming languages.
the thing with smartphones is 90% people who think they need a smartphone do not need it. they just need voice, text and the web. if you are one of these people, iphone is ideal. if not, there are many true smartphones out there.
So your definition of smartphone isn't the commonly accepted one where users are allowed to do those things. Instead your defintion is one where users have to things they no longer have to do because of something called progress. So in your world do you have to hand crank your car to start it and need to adjust the engine timing otherwise it's not a true car?
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Brand loyalty tends to be driven by satisfaction. It can work as momentum to get over a batch of bad products, but even that starts dying down if the window of bad quality lasts too long (look at RIM.)
but many people don't care about replacing the battery and they'd rather not have some rickety plastic door on it that pops open all the time.
Those are your only choices with Apple? You either get a non-serviceable battery, or a rickety plastic door that pops open all the time? Why can't Apple design a battery cover that stays attached to the phone like every other manufacturer has managed to do? Is that one of those copy-and-paste things, where Apple will eventually come out with a feature long after everyone else has it and then say they do it "better"?
Every phone blocks signal based on how you hold it--I can understand why that isn't obvious to you but this is a technical website so you probably shouldn't hang out here if you don't care to understand basic RF.
If you're going to be technical, then the phone doesn't block anything, your hand does. But, only with the iPhone was your hand actually touching and shorting the antenna.
It is really totally okay if you don't want to buy Apple products and you don't understand anything about technology or engineering
Wow. God help us when Apple's customer base are considered the elite technical/engineering crowd. Apple designs their devices to be extremely simple to use, not technical, designed and marketed for simple people. While generally impressive under the hood, they are marketed with simplicity in mind. I don't know if you heard, but Wozniak doesn't work there any more.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
You are confusing two different problems with radio transmissions. In one instance, the hand is obstructing the antenna, thereby decreasing the signal. In the other instance, you are shorting the antenna and thereby interfering with the transmission. There is little you can do to prevent objects from blocking the path of the radio signal. But you're damned stupid to put a bare antenna right along the edge of a device meant to be held in the hand. Have you never used rabbit ear antennas in your life?
Total rubbish. I was an anti-iPod cheerleader for years. Must have Ogg Vorbis support, never will support DRM, etc. Chanted the same "freedom or die" nonsense that /. championed. Even bought the nomad, irivers, etc. I hated them all so I eventually caved and bought an iPod.
I then kicked myself for being an idiot all those years. The iPod was the superior product all along. My bias prevented me from seeing that. I didn't even realise you could play non-DRM music on the iPod. I was that ignorant of the product; in part because I listened to ignorant blogger comments instead of doing my own research.
The "Apple is inferior" and "Apple over charges for making it pretty" chants are getting old. Nobody believes it anymore. The MacBook, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad... they're competitive on price and superior in quality. People are buying Apple again and again because they like what they get.
The anti-Apple crowd is now full of religious nuts because they won't admit the blindingly obvious; Apple is making great products. And the constant barrage of "bah, it's just fanbois, idiots, hipsters, brainwashed sheeple" sounds more and more like sour grapes every day.
Do you think anybody buys an iPhone because they were tricked into thinking they could do some C++ coding for it right out of the box?
The technology is impressive and well-executed. If it isn't something you want, then don't buy it (there are alternatives). I don't see why you have to shit all over anyone who makes a different value judgement about what they want from a phone.
Actually it's less interesting then even that. All this says that is a bunch of people are planning to make their next phone an iOS phone, and are waiting until the next generation to do it. Big deal.
My next desktop will be a windows machine, my next laptop probably a mac, my next phone probably android. I don't know exactly what form these will take, these purchases are months if not years off, but if there is a better model/version on the verge of release, I'd probably wait a few months extra for it to come out.
I'm in the 35% that wants the iphone 5 to be an unseen sight.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
and are expecting the next generation to be the same but faster and plain better
You mean like how the new versions of Final Cut Pro and OS X Server are big improvements over their predecessors?
Let's ask someone with a clue: Why we’re betting everything on FCP X
Fandroids hate facts.
Many, many moons ago (see my UID), this was a site founded about open source (with emphasis on Linux), science, and technology (with emphasis on IT). It was good, and attracted many interesting and smart people. The articles weren't always the best, but you could read comments from people who were knowledgeable in their field, and learn about really cool things you otherwise would never hear about.
But then, MS started to astroturf, and with popularity came misinformed bigots and those ignorant of science and the reasons for Free software. Microsoft and most of their shills have been (rightfully) discredited, but there has been a resurgence in people too blind to look past their brand loyalty and not satisfied with other sites that might better meet their needs. Why they feel the need to push their agenda to every inch of the Internet, I do not know.
Many good people have left slashdot; some of us still stay to try and clean things up. But it's hard when you see tons of spam and slashvertisements for companies who are hostile to freedom filling up the firehose everyday, and very little of note about open source and science and real technology getting through. Though there are still many wise people posting insightful comments here, I fear it might be time for me to leave. I'm not sure where I'd go; preferably somewhere that focuses on more technical issues; somewhere that cares about Freedom and open systems. Slashdot does not appear to be that place anymore.
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I see pretty stark differences in browsing, general UI of the phones, how it handles multi-tasking, battery life, battery management options, cameras, size and style of the phone, availability and quality of apps, standard keybaord vs the dragging the line thing, ect. And then there's the contracts and carriers besides. If you're not finding any perceived differences between the phones perhaps your just not that into phones like my grandparents aren't that into computers. They wouldn't see any perceived difference between a Mac, Windows Vista, or ubuntu box, they both have a monitor, you type with the keyboard move the cursor with a mouse and can browse the internet, so what could possibly set them apart? Must be solely branding.
the iPods were never as good as the competition failing to support the same DRM that everybody else supported
It's hilarious that you think that's an argument. Here's a few reasons why:
A) iTunes sold a ton of music during their DRM'ed music days. The other stores would have loved to have their numbers.
B) Nobody sells individually DRM'ed tracks anymore, so this hasn't been a big issue for a little while.
C) If they would have gone with PlaysForSure instead of their own DRM, Microsoft would have had a total monopoly on music DRM.
D) Microsoft themselves abandoned PlaysForSure with the Zune. Hell, they didn't even support Windows Media Player with the Zune. They came up with a whole new ecosystem of software and DRM. Clearly, Microsoft was trying as hard as they could to emulate Apple's success.
E) How much music that's been "protected" by PlaysForSure is still playable? Take a look at the PlaysForSure wikipedia page, specifically the sections for "Content providers that offer PlaysForSure-certified audio" and "Content providers that formerly offered PlaysForSure". If you bought music from any of those former stores, but you need to move it to a new computer, your only option is to burn it to a CD, then re-rip it.
I'd say they didn't fail to support the same DRM, they succeeded in not supporting the same DRM.
Also, the battery in my 5th gen iPod started to get pretty weak. I replaced it, and it was easy and inexpensive. Anyone who doesn't want to replace the battery themselves can easily sell it on eBay and buy a new one. It is pretty lame that they are so quickly consumed, but it's honestly not a huge drawback.
Not hard to imagine these numbers.
Q: Would you buy a phone that's better than the iPhone4 (one of the best selling smart phones)?
A: Survey results: most everyone says yes..
"better than the iPhone4" = "iPhone5"
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.